


Red Ruin

by DalekIx



Category: F.E.A.R. (Video Games), RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beware Paxton Fettel's Happy Funtimes Battalion, Creepy Ruby, Deviates From Canon, Gen, Harlan Wade Swears a Lot, Increasingly Significant Changes from Canon, It's F.E.A.R. For Crying Out Loud, Psychic Abilities, Psychological Horror, Sunshine And Rainbows?, Tags Are Fun, Tags May Change, Yang puns, all aboard the trauma train, what do you expect?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2019-11-16 00:16:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18083702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DalekIx/pseuds/DalekIx
Summary: "Doctor Wade says Ruby's a Telepath, hardwired to be sensitive to negative emotions. Ruby says she has a "condition". I say my sister has a fuckingcurse." -Yang Xiao Long





	1. PREMONITION 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A promise is made.

Red Ruin

* * *

_Yea_ _r_ _s ago_

* * *

Qrow Branwen took a sip from his flask. He glanced at the small girl seated next to him on some fallen log and felt deeply sorry for her; Yang had the _everything_ of someone in desperate need of a sip herself, but Qrow wasn't about to offer.

"You've gone all quiet, Firecracker," he drawled. The blonde said nothing. It wasn't like Yang to be quiet, and that worried Qrow more than he was going to admit. Hell, she was as quiet as...

Qrow looked in front of him.

Ruby stared back. It was a blank, emotionless stare that seemed focused on something somewhere inside your skull, and the deep, deep dark circles around those silver eyes only emphasized it.

Ruby stared at him some more, and then went back to staring at Yang. The younger of Qrow's nieces looked bizarrely unperturbed by what had nearly happened. Sure, both of them looked like hell, but Ruby _always_ looked like hell to some extent, depending on when she last slept. If anything, she looked a little better- at least she wasn' _t flinching_ or crying out at things only she could see. Or _whispering._

Qrow had only seen Ruby this calm when Summer had been alive.

Yang, on the other hand... She'd blurted out everything to Qrow after he'd killed the Beowolves, and then fallen into a silence that he didn't like one bit.

"Yang..."

"Where is she?" Yang asked. Qrow didn't need to guess who "she" was.

"No idea, Firecracker," he admitted, "she talks to me, sometimes. Messages. Nothing to trace her by."

A long, long silence.

"... Does she ask about us?"

"No."

"... Could she come back?"

"She _could_ , maybe." A sigh. "She _won't_. And trust me, I've tried to get her back enough times to know."

Small hands gripped the edge of her blouse, and Yang lowered her head. A small part of Qrow wanted to slap some sense into Taiyang. The rest of him understood that the man had quite a few reasons to have taken Summer's death (and it had to be death; nothing _else_ would've kept her away) as hard as he had, and that he was hardly a comforting sort of presence.

Ruby tilted her head, one way and then the other. She kept _staring_ at Yang. The red cloak that Summer had gifted her shrouded her and pooled onto the floor. Qrow saw Yang look up at her sister, and then Ruby was suddenly half a meter further from them than she had been.

Yang winced. "Sorry," she whispered.

Ruby said nothing. Did nothing. Just stared and _stared_.

Then,

"Sorry?"

The word had been like an apparition, coming from absolutely nowhere and then leaving so quickly you were almost sure you'd imagined it. Qrow couldn't even quite remember having heard it; it was just... _there._ Soft and harsh and a bit _too_ much like the whispers that followed his niece around for Qrow's piece of mind.

"I'm sorry," Yang said, a little louder, "I shouldn't have come here. It's just..." A hiccup. "I promised mom I'd take care of you, but it's just so... So..."

Yang fell silent.

"... My fault."

"It's not," Qrow snapped, "Don't _ever_ think that. You didn't ask for any of this."

" _Is_."

And _boy_ did Ruby have a glare on her. Positively milk-curdling material. Qrow was _almost_ impressed.

"Is _n't_ ," he drawled.

" _My fault_."

Qrow snorted. "Kid, if you go around claiming everything bad that ever happens as something you're responsible for, you'll never stop trying to make up for it." A sip from his flask. "You'll always be running yourself ragged and feeling miserable. And that ain't any way to live. This was Yang's fu- _mistake,_ " he hastily corrected himself again; being around Harlan was contagious in all the _worst_ ways, "and kids like you two make 'em all the time --heck, this isn't even _half_ as stupid as some of the things I got up to when I was your age."

Yang sniffled.

Ruby didn't move. Which is why Yang was so startled when she glanced up and saw her little sister suddenly in arm's reach.

"... Promise."

Yang blinked. "Wha?"

"Promise you won't burn."

That phrase made _no sense_ to Qrow, and it was about the most words Ruby had ever said in one go with him to hear. But Yang seemed to understand; she sat straight up and looked at Ruby in the eye.

"I promise."

Again, Ruby didn't move. Not immediately. She shuffled closer to Yang, bit by bit. Stopping often. Retreating once. Advancing again. Qrow watched the whole thing in fascination. Yang was being about as patient as Yang could be. Sometimes she looked about to urge Ruby to move faster, but bit her lip and visibly forced herself to settle down. 

Ever so slowly, Ruby made it to the log, and crawled onto it, red cloak bunched up around herself. She trembled once and, with a cry, threw herself at Yang. Yang froze. Wordlessly, she put her arms around her little sister and pulled her tight. Ruby squrimed, but then, almost immediately, went still.

"... Warm."

"... Huh," Qrow said, "I thought she _hates_ being touched." 

"S-she does." Yang sounded and looked as shocked as Qrow felt, "she doesn't even let me get close..."

"She thinks I'm gonna burn her."

 

* * *


	2. INTERVAL 00: INCEPTION

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beacon receives new students.

# INTE **R** VAL 00

## INCEPTION

* * *

_"Qrow, it's Harlan. I know the fucking system we made. I looked it over with you, compared it to the alternatives, and agreed to play my role, when the first signs appeared. I'd run the tests. You'd keep her grounded. I don't need you to tell me what I already know,_ **_jackass_ ** _."_

 _"Which is why I'm_ asking _you to sit your dusty ass down on a chair and listen very closely. Because you don't see what I do."_

 

* * *

*Click*

The scroll made a noise, a vauge approximation of an antique film camera, and the image of Beacon Academy was preserved. The girl who took the photo turned away from the airship's window, and stared at the what she'd taken. Trying to burn it into her memory.

She felt her forest fire of a sister nearby, and Ruby Rose felt glad she was here. Things were better when Yang was around. Yang was safe.

In both interpretations of that sentence.

She adjusted the hood of her cloak, and the whispers quieted.

The roaring flame leaned closer. "Whatcha got there- oh," she started to say, before realising it on her own, "Pretty sweet, huh?"

"Yup!" Ruby said, nodding, "Our new home..." A beat. "Except for the holidays. And the times we're out on long missions. But other than that..."

She trailed off, focused on the screen. It flickered. Yang wanted to know what the view outside looked like to her.

Ruby didn't want Yang to know.

* * *

_"You don't see the readings when she's under stress. You don't see what she does when she let's a_ **_tiny_ ** _fraction of what's in her loose, Qrow. And that's by her own admission. A tiny... Insignificant part of what she can do."_

_"And that scares the shit out of me."_

* * *

The cloak could muffle the whispers, but Ruby still needed to _see._

Mostly.

She was having a good day, though! The sun was shining, the air was clear, and she was about to become a Hunter (well, Hunter-in-training) at her sister's side. She could even still see what _is_ under what her mind was telling her was there.

Silver eyes scanned the crowd, a smile on her face. She found the knight in paper armor emptying his stomach into the nearest plant pot. An iceberg stood alone, cold and unassailable. And then there was the masked shadow, twitching and tense as if about to flee...

Ruby blinked, and what _is_ flickered into view for an instant.

The knight in paper armor had a sword in a collapsible shield-shreath. The last time she'd seen one was in a museum! Either it was good enough to still keep up with modern stuff, or it was a hand-me-down.

It was definitely a hand-me-down. Still, can't go wrong with the classics!

The Iceberg had a Multi Action Dust Rapier (Eeeeeeeeee!). Another had a Collapsible Dust Staff (Ooooooooh!). The Shadow had-

"Is that a Variable Blade Chain Scythe?!"

The blush came, unbidden, and Yang laughed.

"Whoa sis, calm down," She said, a smile in her voice, "They're just weapons."

" _Just weapons!?"_ Ruby couldn't believe her ears. Her own sister is saying this! "They're extensions of ourselves, what we choose put between us and the enemy..." She toned the passion in her voice down a little, adjusting her hood even though the conviction never left her eyes, "They say a lot about who we are."

Yang chuckled.

"With all those new weapons, won't Crescent Rose start to feel jealous?" She teased.

Ruby huffed and, unfolding her weapon from it's storage mode on the small of her back, brought the Super High Velocity Sniper Penetrator-Scythe in front of her and hugged it.

"Crescent Rose knows I love her," she shot back, grinning, "But I still like seeing new weapons. It's like meeting new people!"

Her grin faltered.

"Just... Better."

A shake of a head that sent hair swaying to and fro like the firestorm that Yang was. "Come on, Rubes," her sister said, gently, "Let's meet new weapons. Who knows, we might meet new people _completely by accident_."

And by "Completely by accident", Yang meant "Completely on purpose".

Ruby felt her sister recognise someone in the crowd, and she looked back at her.

Maybe it was the warmth in her chest from being _here_ that gave her the confidence to do what she was about to do.

"You can go and say hi," Ruby told Yang.

There was hesitation.

"You sure?" It was a lifeline. A chance to back out.

Ruby nodded. "Yup!" A smile. "I can handle this."

She turned back, and her eyes fell on the iceberg and the MADR on her hip.

* * *

_"I understand that keeping her caged will only lead to us having a fucking nightmare made manifest out for our blood. You told me that. I didn't believe you at first. I thought containment -physical containment- was possible, maybe even preferable. And I'm not shy about admitting I was wrong."_

 _"But when she's with you, you see your honorary niece. Your little apprentice, swinging that scythe she made. You don't see just how tenuous the hold we have on her is. The hold she has on_ herself. _Like a ribbon in a hurricane."_

* * *

The Iceberg had been cold and aloof (iceberg, _duh_ ) and the shadow had been... Well, she'd been nice, after Ruby had been not-quite-shooed-away by the Iceberg (Schnee. _Weiss_ Schnee. Heiress to the _SDC_ , just her luck.) but she had her own aloofness.

Ruby didn't like aloof people. They made her want to blurt out things she shouldn't know about them.

Things like "Why are you hiding your ears?"

And "What are you so _afraid_ of?"

... She hadn't actually _said_ any of that to the shadow (Blake. Her name was Blake Baetica) _,_ Grimm and Dust. And the Ice- Weiss. _Weiss_ was too closed off and (mercifully) quiet for her to get much. But it was a pretty close thing. The knight in paper armor (Jaune Arc) had been friendly with her even after she'd kinda sorta maybe accidentally scared him but...

Well.

She hoped his armour stopped being paper soon.

Professor Ozpin had made a rather paradoxically unmotivating speech before sending them to the dorms for their first night, and it was time for bed.

Ruby was ready for sleep. She had her favourite PJs, her mother's cloak, her medicine (the chalky tablets never went down easily and they made breakfast taste like sand, but it was better than the alternative) and Yang and Crescent Rose.

She bit her lip, her scroll extended to full in front of her, and a messaging app open.

She felt the flame sneak closer.

"So, what ch'u writing, sis?"

"A letter," she answered.

"Just the one?"

Ruby winced. She'd hoped her sister wouldn't notice that.

"Just the one," she answered. She began to type.

 _To:_ _Harlan Wade_

_Dear Dr. Wade..._

* * *

_"I know what you're going to say, if you ever do the intelligent thing and pick up your fucking scroll to call me back. That we shouldn't cage her. That if she believes she's holding your niece back --because we know they'll follow the other no matter what we do-- things will only get worse. That we need to give Ruby agency so she_ wants _to help us. That she has Yang with her to watch over her, and us to smooth things if they're needed. And those are all true._

 _"But just because this is the best choice doesn't mean it's a_ good _one. There are too many "what if's" for me to sleep at night. What if she slips? What if she has a surge, like those she used to have? What if she tries to do something and doesn't hold enough back? What if Ozpin decides to ass-fuck us all for his own agenda?_

_"What if something happens to Yang?_

_"It's too late to go back. I'll keep monitoring her from here. And she'll be sending me messages every day. But I'm asking you to keep your own eyes open. And to brace yourself._

_"Harlan Wade out."_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about posting this and the initiation ceremony in the same chapter, but realized that, narrative-wise at least, there's a very clear break point between the two. So, here's the first proper chapter of Red Ruin! I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> I know I did :D

**Author's Note:**

> A little preview of something I'm currently working on. Stay tuned for more!


End file.
